Recently, with the development of information and communications technology including the Internet, image content such as digital image information in various types of field has rapidly increased.
Image content can be viewed with, for example, a web browser. The images may be viewed after files are downloaded from a server that stores the images. Alternatively, the images may be viewed with, for example, a suitable web browser while the images are simultaneously being received from a streaming server.
In either case, the image content to be distributed is time-oriented data. Thus, the image content needs to be fast-forwarded or rewound on browsing software such as a web browser in order to find or check a necessary part of the images.
In the former case, the images need to be downloaded all at once. Thus, even a part of the images cannot viewed until the files have been completely received even when a broadband connection that has been recently spread is used. On the other hand, in the latter case, the images can be viewed upon storing a predetermined amount of images in a buffer. However, when images that start from a predetermined time are viewed, the images must be again stored in the buffer.
Thus, a problem exists, in that it is time-consuming and cumbersome to check the content of images. Accordingly, hitherto, two main techniques have been studied for checking the outline of images.
A first technique is a technique for presenting images on a web page in a clear way. For example, an interface has been proposed, in which contracted image segments and text information are provided side by side on the web and the thumbnail images are expanded so as to seamlessly reproduce the original images.
A second technique is a technique for generating and reproducing a digest of images within a specified period of time. For example, a method for generating a digest depending on the purpose by assigning indexes, for example, tied score, come-from-behind win, and walk-off win, directly to images in the case of sports images and a method for generating a digest using an automatic indexing technique are known.
In addition to these techniques, individual elemental techniques have been studied, for example, a method for having a grasp of story, a method for selecting individual important scenes, and a method for generating a digest.
For example, a method is disclosed in International Publication No. WO00/17778, for generating index images in various forms using a video browser technique, in which the index images is still images that represent the content of moving images in a condensed form. Moreover, an image displaying apparatus and a method is disclosed in International Publication No. WO00/17779, for having a proper grasp of the content of fast moving images or moving image including short scenes which is hard to grasp only with the aforementioned index images. This method is supposed to enable playback from the scene that a user wishes to watch.
Moreover, a system for extracting information that is used to retrieve moving image content and the like are disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-335473. In this system, a piece of moving image content on the Internet is split into scenes, a representative still image is selected from each scene to create a thumbnail image, and then the created thumbnail image is stored in a moving-image retrieval information database.
Moreover, an apparatus and a method for viewing digital image content are disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-309269, in which pieces of image content distributed through digital broadcasting are each split into segments where each segment represents a channel, a program, or a predetermined period of time, groups of icons corresponding to the segments are classified and arranged to be located at predetermined positions, and an image content segment can be displayed by viewing this arrangement from the corresponding view point.